By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

A raucous party that stretched across four nights of the holiday weekend ended in violence early Sunday morning when one man was killed and four other teenagers were injured by a barrage of bullets that began with an altercation at a house on Milton Avenue and spilled onto the street outside.

Friends of 18 year-old Jonathon Calvin Jacques, known as 40-Cal in the Uphams Corner neighborhood where he grew up, were still mourning his death at a street memorial at the corner of Hancock and Glendale Streets early in the week, and abutters to the party house on Milton Avenue were frustrated with an incident that they say was poorly handled, and even ignored, by police.

A woman who lives in the house next door, who asked that her name be withheld, said she watched the altercation escalate from her bathroom window but didn't call the police because her calls had gone without a police response on previous nights.

"I've got a lot of anger about what happened." She said. "With all due respect, does someone need to be killed to check out a call?"

She said the party began Wednesday, an assertion corroborated by Dina Jerome, who lives in a house across the street.

"From Wednesday through Saturday nights, they were partying with lots of loud music and drinking," said Jerome.

Both Jerome and the direct abutter said that partying had been a problem at the house for several weeks, since a group of three to four unfamiliar teenage males began regularly dropping by the home, which has a cloudy ownership and resident history. But Wednesday's gathering, which was promoted on the Internet, marked a new level of intensity at the house. Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll confirmed that a neighbor called to report a loud party in the early hours of November 23 (Thanksgiving Day). No cruiser was dispatched, Driscoll explained, because lower priority calls, such as noise disturbances, often go without a response during high-call periods in especially busy districts like B-3. Neighbors say the party was considerably tamer on Thursday, but began with renewed vigor on Friday evening. Driscoll said that at 2:11 a.m. on Saturday morning another call came to 911 for a loud party (no cruiser was dispatched) and at 3:23 came a phone call for shots fired. While the abutter did not recall seeing police officers at the party that evening, Driscoll says units responded and dispersed the crowd, but did not find evidence of gunplay.

Revelers returned on Saturday evening, and the party reached a fevered pitch as it stretched into early Sunday morning. This time, the neighbor says she decided not to call.

"When I called before, nobody came," she said. "They're giving citizens like me fear to call, because we don't know what to expect in return."

At 3:19 a.m. someone did call to report the party, and within seconds came another call that an altercation had spilled onto the driveway. In rapid succession came calls for shots fired and a man down, and officers were on the scene by 3:23 a.m. They dispersed the crowd and called for EMS services, but did not detain a suspect in the shooting. All victims were transported to the Boston Medical Center, where Jacques was pronounced dead. The other victims, said Driscoll, are expected to recover fully.

"The homicide remains under investigation," said Driscoll. "Detectives were able to recover ballistic evidence from the scene, and they continue to analyze evidence and conduct interviews."

Events leading up to the party are obscured by the home's uncertain residency status. The city's Inspectional Service Department condemned the home after dispensing 16 code violations in the wake of the shooting. Elizabeth Son, who is listed in city records as the property's owner, appeared in Boston Housing Court on Tuesday on pre-existing citations for a lack of smoke detectors at the property. A second session has been scheduled for Thursday to address the citations and condemnation.

According to the Boston Globe, Son said through a lawyer that she has never lived in the home or collected rent from any tenants. But several neighbors told the Reporter that the home was long occupied by an elderly woman, identified by a city official as Rachel Huggins, who passed away several months ago. It was Huggins who filed complaints leading to Tuesday's housing court hearing.

The next-door neighbor said that after Huggins' death, her daughter began staying at the house. Neighbors told the Reporter that the house was the scene of several violent altercations in recent months.

Police records show that officers responded to a call for a domestic violence dispute at the home on October 26. Responding officers found a woman with lacerations above her left eye who said that her boyfriend had struck her with a glass bottle before fleeing on foot. Driscoll said the woman was treated by EMS services but declined to go to the hospital for stitches.

Neighbors said they did not see the woman again after that night, and that the unknown young men began showing up at the home several weeks later. One of those young men once told the abutter that he was not related to Huggins or her daughter.

As the police search for suspects and city officials try to locate anyone who may have lived at the home before it was boarded up this weekend, friends of Jacques were keeping his memory alive at an impromptu memorial outside the apartment building on the corner of Glendale and Hancock Streets. Friends and neighbors (Jacques lived on Glendale Street with his mother and siblings until several weeks ago) had deposited candles and empty bottles near the corner of the building, and etched tributes and well-wishes onto the beige siding of the building in indelible ink.

Friends, like a man who identified himself by the nickname 'Miami,' said that Jacques was a friendly young man who liked to party and meet girls, not cause trouble.

"He was a great kid," said Miami, who lived next door to Jacques. "These days, people just shoot. Whoever gets hit gets hit. It's just another good kid gone, that's all."

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